Chapter FiftyRaphael’s POV“Why won’t she let me talk to her though? Is there something I did wrong?” I asked Sam.“Maybe she’s going through something. And it wasn’t always like she. She didn’t have to check in with you before now. It might be hard adjusting to the change.”“But we were good though. I was talking to her regularly and one night I called and she said she was asleep and the next night after that and then she stopped returning my calls.”“Can you think of anything you might have done?”“No. I didn’t do anything.”“Then go and find out.”“What?” I asked.“Fly there and talk to her about it.”“I can’t just show up without any warning. She might chase me away.”“Do you. She’s your daughter, you have the right to see her.” He said and walked away to continue working.I thought hard about what he said. What’s the worst that can happen? I got up and rounded up my work and called my assistant to book me a flight to California.I went to my mum's house to inform her that I woul
Chapter Fifty-OneCamilla’s POV“Look, I’m really tired now and I can’t talk. We’ll have to have this conversation tomorrow.” I said.“Sure. I understand. And look, I'm sorry for taking her without informing you. That was reckless and selfish of me. I can’t imagine how you felt.” He apologized.“I accept your apology. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said and walked him to the door.“Goodnight.”“Goodnight.” I replied closing the door behind him.I had just returned from the party. It wasn’t over yet but it was getting late and I wanted to return home. It was currently 10pm and Rory and Martha were already asleep so I got ready for bed and went to sleep.The next morning, I called Raphael and we planned to meet at a coffee shop near the house because we didn't want to have the conversation with Rory around.I skipped breakfast and made my way to the coffee shop where Raphael was already waiting for me.“Hi, good morning.” I said sitting in the chair opposite him.“Good morning. How are you?”
Chapter Fifty-TwoRaphael’s POV“Hey, everything alright?” I asked when I answered Camilla’s call.“No, not really. I need you to come back to the house now.” She answered.“Uhm, okay. No problem. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.” I said and hung up the phone.“Baby, we have to go home now.” I said to Aurora.“But I don’t want to leave.”“We’ll come back another time, okay?”“Fine.”We packed up and headed back to the car and the driver drove us to the house.We got there and headed inside. Camilla was in the living room waiting.“Rory, go in the room and stay with Martha.” She said and Aurora skipped inside.“What’s wrong? What’s the problem?” I asked.“My grandfather had a heart attack and he’s in critical condition and I need to leave for New York right now and I don’t know what to do.”“Is he going to be alright?”“I don’t know. I have to be in New York.”“Calm down. I’m sure we’ll figure things out. When are you leaving?”“I called my assistant. The earliest flight leaves in two and
Chapter Fifty-ThreeCamilla’s POVAfter seven hours we landed and the driver was waiting for me along with my grandfather’s assistant.“Good day, Miss Camilla. It’s good to have you back. It’s said it’s under such circumstances.” He said.“I know. Let’s go.”After some minutes of driving, we arrived at the hospital and went to the private suite where my grandfather was. I walked into the room. There were tubes everywhere and an oxygen mask on his face. I was scared. I sat down beside him and talked to him for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe he asked them not to call me. He’s stubborn after all.I went outside to speak to the doctor. “How is he?” I asked.“He just got out of surgery, we won’t know it was successful until he wakes up.”“What if he doesn’t wake up?”“He will. Don’t worry. Let’s go to my office so we can talk about things better there.”We walked to his office and he gave me a thorough detail of his condition. He told me to go back home and stop worrying and that they
Chapter Forty-FourRaphael’s POVThe next morning after Camilla, Rory and Martha left I decided to go pick Jason up. I think it was finally time to introduce my mum, sister, and son to Aurora. I would wait until the chairman woke up though because I didn’t want to spring it on Camilla just like that while she was already worried.I got ready for the day, had a light breakfast, and went to my mum's house.“Daddy.” He said running to me.“How are you?” I asked.“I’m fine. I missed you.”“I missed you too.” I said putting him down. “Hey, mum.”I walked to the dining room and there were different kinds of breakfast.“Have a seat.” She said.“I already had breakfast but how can I say no?” I sat down and fixed up a plate for myself. My sister also came in the dining room and sat down. We had all breakfast and Jason went to the living room to play.“Camilla is back in town.” I announced.“Really?” My sister asked. “What brought her back?”“Her grandfather’s sick. He’s in the hospital.”“The
Chapter Fifty-FiveCamilla’s POV“Mummy I want to talk to Daddy.” Rory said rubbing her eyes. She was a second away from falling asleep. “I want to see Daddy. I want to go to his house. I want to talk to him.” She whined. If I didn’t give in to her request she would start crying and I didn’t want to deal with that. “Okay, okay. I’ll call him.” I said and picked up my phone.I called him and the phone rang but he didn’t pick up. “Baby, he didn’t answer my call.” I turned to tell Rory but she had already fallen asleep. I covered her with her blanket and turned off the lights. She would not be waking up any time soon.She fell asleep realky early because she had a realky long day. I left the room and went back to mine. I wasn’t ready to sleep so I brought out my computer to do some work.After about five minutes, I got a call from Raphael.“Hi.” I said when I answered the phone.“Hey.”“Uhm. I called because Rory wanted to speak to you and she was asking to come to your house.”“Put he
Chapter Fifty-SixRaphael’s POV“They’re on their way.” I announced.“Oh, okay.” My mum said.“Please be nice.” I said.“Did I say I wasn’t going to be? I was the one who asked to meet with her.”“I know but you weren’t a fan of her before so..”“Come on. I’m over all that. The last time we saw each other things were good between us.”“If you say so. Audrey, how do you feel?”“What’s that supposed to mean?”“I don’t know. Just try to be nice to her. She’s going through a lot right now.”“Okay.”I went to the kitchen to get water to drink. I was a bit nervous about her meeting them. I went back to the living room. I hadn’t told Jason yet, he was playing with his toys on the floor. I wasn’t sure he would understand the concept of a sibling. I got a call from Camilla telling me they had arrived. Then I heard a knock on the door and went to open it.“Hi.” She said.“Hey.”“Daddy.” She hugged me.“Hi, baby.” I said picking her up. “Come on.” I opened the door a little wider for her to pas
Chapter Fifty-SevenCamilla’s POVAfter I left Rapheal’s house, I went back to the hospital. I knew he wasn’t awake yet but I wanted to be there for him. I just sat next to him holding his hand praying he would wake up.The board of directors some how found out I was around and were asking to see much. We scheduled for a meeting for tomorrow. I hadn’t had this much pressure out on me in years. Running my own company back in California was very different from handling this one.This was an empire built from the ground many years ago that still stood in the business world. I never thought about the fact that one day I would have to come back to all of this. When I packed up years ago, I thought I would leave it all behind forever.My thoughts were pushed to the back of my head when I got a call. It was from James. I stepped outside the room to take it.“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked.“I’m fine. I just saw Rory at your friend’s place. Are you in New York? This is all so confusing. I h
Chapter Sixty-NineCamilla’s POV‘I didn’t want to hurt your little girl before, but now you made me mad.’ That was the next message I received from that same number.I showed the message to Rapheal who then sent it to the PI. We also called the police to let them know that the person texted again. So far, it seemed like they weren’t after ransom or anything. They just wanted to hurt me and my daughter.“We’re running out of time, Raphael.”“We’re not. Trust me, they’re not going to do anything to her. They know better.”The police now had a breakthrough. With the help of the PI, they had managed to track the phone number, but what was weird was that the location was New York. There’s no way they flew with Rory to New York. That was impossible.The NYPD got involved and took care of finding the person behind the number in New York.They still focused on finding her here.After a while, we got a call. They had an idea where she was. I picked up the keys and dashed out of the house wit
Chapter Sixty-EightRaphael's POVI rounded up my work and set to leave the office. The driver was already going to pick Jason up so I didn’t have to worry about that. Emily was having dinner with us tonight so I called her to let her know I was off work.I drove to the house and after I had freshened up, Emily had arrived. She offered to cook for the dinner so she arrived early.I let her do the cooking and went to the living room to watch TV.After a few minutes, I got a call from Camilla. It took me by suprise. We hadn’t really spoken all week. I was trying to give her the space that she deserved.“Where are you?” She asked.“What?” I was taken aback by the question.“Where did you go with my daughter?” She asked again.“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Was she drunk or?“What do you mean by you don’t know what Im talking about? The school said you came to pick Rory up.” “What? I'm in New York.”“Are you being serious?”“Yes. What happened?” I was starting to get wor
Chapter Sixty-SevenCamilla’s POVThe past week was just a rush of things. We moved out of our old house into a much safer house. We also hired private security just in case. I was thinking of changing schools for Rory but I just decided to let her continue going there. It’d be hard for her to adapt to a new environment.I spent almost all my time at work. I put in all the hours I’d taken off before. I met with Alexander one time and vented to him. He was a good friend, he reassured me and gave me words of encouragement to keep going. It was finally Friday and I was happy to spend the weekend in bed. I dropped Rory off at school and then went to work. I went to my office and got started on work. During my lunch break, I got a call from Alexander. “Hey. How are you doing?”“I’m fine. How are you?”“Good, good. How’s the new place?”“It’s alright. It’s a lot different than our old house and Rory’s a bit scared to sleep in her new room but she’ll come around.”“I know she will. Any ne
Chapter Sixty-SixRaphael's POVI sat down on the couch in defeat. I’d mange’s to make Camilla angry at me again. Every time we wanted to talk, I somehow always said the wrong thing and pushed her further away from me.It wasn’t my intent to shame her for her decisions when she was younger or make her think Aurora was something to be hidden. I’d fucked up, once again.The chairman who had followed behind her returned to the living room.“She’s leaving, tonight. She’s packing already.”“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say all those things to her.”“But you did. You can’t seem to let go of the past, can’t you? You always bring that up in every conversation you guys have. She’s already apologized for that countless times. Why do you have to keep punishing her? She’s already going through enough.”“I know. I'm sorry but she took those years of my life. I can never get that back. You had a hand in that too.”“You know, you could have refused the marriage. But you didn’t, because of your father
Chapter Sixty-FiveCamilla’s POVI stormed out of the living room after I slapped Raphael. Normally I wouldn’t resort to violence but he riled me up so fast I didn’t know when I walked up to him and slapped him.How dare he? Shame me for being in love. And I thought we were already past that but if seemed we still had a lot to talk about.I went to my room and started packing up my things. I also went to Rory’s room to pack her bags. Whether he liked it or not, we were going to leave tonight.I didn’t know if I was angry with what he said because it was true or not. I wasn’t ashamed of my daughter, I could never be. I was only trying to protect her from the things I was exposed to. No child deserves to grow up under the limelight and scrutiny of the media. I was crying and I didn’t even know it. My eyes were clouded with tears and I could barely see. I sat down on the bed trying to calm myself down.I heard a knock on the door and I looked up to see a figure of my grandpa.“Are you o
Chapter Sixty-FourRaphael's POV“Did you see the news about Camilla?” Sam asked as I came out of the meeting room.“What news?”“They leaked her address, her job back in California, and her phone number. Everything about the life she’s been living these last few years is on the internet.”“What the hell? Did they say anything about Aurora?”“No. They didn’t. But I’m sure they know about her too. They’re just kind enough not to put that out.”“She must be devastated.”“I know right? Have you talked to her? When was she thinking about going back?”“I don’t know. She hasn’t said anything. I’ll call her right now.” I said.“Ok, bro. I’ll get back to work. See you later.” He said and left. I went back to my office and picked up my phone to call her. It seemed her phone was switched off. Of course it would, it would be blowing up by now with messages and calls from random people.I went online to check for the news Sam talked about. It was kind of nasty. The comments said mean things abou
Chapter Sixty-ThreeCamilla’s POVAfter spending the whole night trying to figure out what my next decision would be, I finally made uo my mind to go back to California. I wanted to spend the rest of the week here before returning though.I got up and got ready for the day. I went to check up on my grandpa and took him out for a walk around the compound.“I’ll be leaving next week.” I announced.“That’s good. You’ve spent a long time here anyway. It’s time to return to your normal life.”“But this was my life though. Here in New York.”“And it’s not anymore. You started a new one that you can’t leave behind.”We continued the walk in silence. After circling the compound, we returned to the house. Rory was already up by this time. My grandpa was to return to work in a few weeks after the doctor cleared him. For now, he was taking a break and letting Jeremy handle the company.We had breakfast and then my grandpa headed to his study. He was invested in reading nowadays. Rory kept beggin
Chapter Sixty-TwoRaphael's POVI worked from home today so I could spend a little bit of time with Aurora. Camilla still hadn’t made up her mind about when to leave for California. To be honest, it was making me kind of nervous that I didn’t know when my daughter would be leaving me.Aurora was in the middle of the room playing with her toys while I worked away on my computer. “Daddy, when will Jason be back?” She asked.“He won’t be back for long, honey. He’s at school, remember.”“Why didn't I go to school? I miss my friends.” She said.“You’ll be back to school in a bit. When you guys return home.”“Are you going to come with us?”“Uhm. I don’t know yet.”“Well, I do want you to come. And Jason too.”“We’ll think about it.”“Okay.” She said going back to her toys.After an hour or two, I went to make her something to eat.“Daddy, can we go to the park and then go get ice cream? I don’t want to stay inside all day.” She complained.“I’ll have to ask your mummy first. We can’t go o
Chapter Sixty-OmeCamilla’s POV“I really don’t need the wheelchair. I can walk fine on my own.”“Not according to the doctor. You don’t need to strain yourself.”“I’ll use the cane. I don't want them to see me as weak, going in there with a wheelchair.” He protested.“Fine.” I gave up. “You can use the cane, only for this meeting.”“Thank you.” They put the wheelchair back in the car and handed the cane to him to support himself while he walked. He has been out of the hospital for two days and today he had a meeting with the board of directors.I insisted on accompanying him even though he didn’t want me to. We finally agreed on me escorting him to the office and going back to the house.“Bye.” I said waving at him.“Goodbye. See you later.” He said.I got back in the car and was on my way back to the house.When I got home, I went to lie down for a bit. It was only me in the house apart from the staff. Rory was at Rapheal’s house. She has been spending a lot of time there as we did